Phyllis Meras
For four years, in the 1970s, as he sought to preserve the Vineyard from overdevelopment, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was a frequent — and deeply involved — Island visitor. He would sail into Vineyard Haven harbor from Hyannisport to visit close friends, the late novelist William Styron and his wife, Rose. And there would be talks late into the night about what lay ahead for the Island — then in the throes of being discovered by developers.
Walter Cronkite, CBS Evening News anchorman from 1962 to 1981, and a devoted Edgartown seasonal resident for more than three decades, died on Friday at his home in New York after a lengthy illness. He was 92.
Alligators like to eat marshmallows, although they shouldn’t. Alligators also like to eat turtles because they are crunchy outside, but soft and chewy inside. Clearly, alligators have good taste and undoubtedly, 50 years ago when Alley’s General Store carried penny candy, alligators would have been in seventh heaven there. Alligators are not, however, voracious eaters — their large mouths and fierce bite notwithstanding, they can get along quite nicely eating just once a month.
It was standing room only Sunday afternoon for the installation of the Rev. Cathlin Baker as the 50th minister and first woman to lead the 336-year-old First Congregational Church of West Tisbury. On hand to participate in the celebratory event were 22 clergy and delegates from the Barnstable Association of the United Church of Christ, Island clergy and friends and supporters from Union Theological Seminary in New York city. It was there that Cathlin Baker received her master of divinity degree.
Fanny Howe of West Tisbury was honored last week with the 2009 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, awarded annually by the Poetry Foundation to a living American poet for lifetime accomplishments that warrant extraordinary recognition. The $100,000 that accompanies the award is one of the largest literary prizes in the nation.
I am just back from Egypt. Happily, during my visit, there were no untoward incidents like the recent bombing in a Cairo bazaar. But I was spending more time outside the capital than in it. On this visit, I did not do such obvious touristic things as bazaar shopping, riding a camel or climbing a pyramid. I did, however, as a memento of my trip, buy a small stuffed camel that sings in Arabic when I press his stomach.